ED Cracks Down on India's Lottery King: Santiago Martin's Multi-Crore Empire Under Nationwide Raids
New Delhi, India Nov 14: The Enforcement Directorate conducted a pan-India raid on Thursday targeting several business entities traced to Santiago Martin, the man being described as India's "lottery king." The raids were conducted at about 20 locations; this includes Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Faridabad in Haryana, Ludhiana in Punjab, and Kolkata in West Bengal, as part of a larger investigation over allegations of financial misconduct and money laundering.
The raids were a follow-up to multiple FIRs and complaints against Martin and his entities, which have been accused of selling illegal lotteries and perpetrating mass financial fraud. The current ED probe, which began in 2012, originates from allegations that Martin was involved in a lottery scam from which the government of Sikkim had supposedly been cheated and possibly in which the gains were siphoned off through illegitimate means.
The ED had already attached assets worth ₹277.59 crore in connection with this probe, including a number of properties scattered all over Tamil Nadu. The agency had scanned Martin's company Future Gaming Solutions Pvt. Ltd, now popularly known as Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt. Ltd. The ED has drawn upon the charge sheets filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation to establish that Martin and his associates had allegedly joined hands with the government officials in an apparent effort to circumvent the Lottery Regulations Act. The company is suspected to have managed not to remit the proceeds from the lottery ticket sales in Kerala through this maneuver and had received wrongful gains of over ₹910 crore between 2009 and 2010.
Earlier, in 2022, the ED had seized assets to the tune of ₹409.92 crore belonging to Future Gaming and Hotel Services Pvt. Ltd and the company's distribution network in West Bengal. The seizure includes bank balances and investments in mutual funds, following cases initiated by the Kolkata Police under the Indian Penal Code and the Lotteries (Regulation) Act.
This multistate investigation into Santiago Martin's lottery business underlines the ED's relentless efforts to curb all sorts of corruption and financial malpractices within the lottery sector.
